Cleaning Suit
Cleaning suits can contain deliberately failing parts, and even Juliette’s improved suit cannot fully protect her from the airlock fire.
Story so far
Cleaning suits are individually tailored for the person awaiting departure. They enclose a black carbon undersuit, have integrated gloves and a one-piece body secured at the back, and are difficult to remove without help. Their numbered, color-coded pockets are oriented for the wearer to read.
Juliette questioned why generations of improvements had never let cleaners travel farther. She suspected deliberately failing seals and washers; Walker likewise alleged that the suits were made to fail. Supply substituted durable materials for her first departure, leaving her with heavily taped gloves whose thickness made the helmet catches difficult to use. After reaching the neighboring silo, she cut away and abandoned that suit. Bernard Holland later threatened to make Lukas’s suit personally so he would die before reaching the hills. While preparing another suit, Juliette finds deliberately defective components, including a gasket that splits under her fingernails.
The airlock fire burns Juliette’s skin through her improved suit. The other cleaner’s suit and charcoal liners burn away in places, exposing his dead body.
Appearance
A protective one-piece suit with integrated gloves, double back zippers, industrial Velcro and extensive heat tape over a dark carbon undersuit. Numbered, color-coded pockets face the wearer.
Role
It encloses a cleaner against the outside, but its protection depends on the quality of components used.
Relationships
Sources — 27 recorded facts, by chapter
- Holston wears a black carbon undersuit beneath the cleaning suit.
- Holston’s cleaning suit closes with two zips and industrial Velcro.
- The cleaning suit has numbered, color-coded pockets labeled upside down for its wearer to read.
- Allison’s cleaning helmet had a silver mask that concealed her face.
- Holston’s cleaning suit catches against the partially opened outer airlock doors as he squeezes through.
- The cleaning suit has integrated gloves and a one-piece body fastened at the back.
- The cleaning suit is not designed to be removed without assistance.
- Cleaning suits are individually tailored for the person waiting in the holding cell.
- The pockets on Juliette’s suit bear numbers oriented for her to read when looking down.
- Juliette feels the airlock pressure squeezing her suit.
- Juliette questions why centuries of suit improvements have never enabled cleaners to travel farther.
- Juliette believes her cleaning suit is designed to last through the cleaning and fail afterward.
- Juliette recognizes pump-style washers and seals in her suit and believes they are designed to fail.
- The suit has numbered pockets that the IT technician explains to Juliette.
- Juliette’s cleaning suit is made to last rather than disintegrate because Supply substitutes its materials.
- Walker alleges that the cleaning suits are designed to fail.
- Juliette regards her well-built suit as a gift from Walker and Supply.
- Juliette’s shiny suit gloves are wrapped in heat tape melted into a protective skin.
- Juliette’s gloves are too thick for her to operate the helmet latches by hand.
- The protective suit has double back zippers, Velcro, and extensive heat tape.
- The helmet collar is attached both to the charcoal undersuit and the reinforced back zippers.
- Juliette abandons the last of the cut-up protective suit outside level six.
- Bernard threatens to build Lukas’s cleaning suit personally so that he will die before reaching the hills.
- Juliette finds components deliberately engineered to fail in the cleaning suit.
- A gasket Juliette tests splits under pressure from her fingernails.
- Even Juliette’s improved suit does not prevent the airlock fire from burning her skin.
- The dead cleaner’s suit and charcoal liners burn away in places, exposing his body.